Subglottic hemangioma: Understanding the association with facial segmental hemangioma in a beard distribution

A subglottic hemangioma (SGH) is a benign tumor of infancy that can cause severe obstruction of the airway. Infantile hemangiomas, in general, are the most common head and neck tumor in children, affecting 4-5% of the pediatric population. This retrospective cohort study characterizes subglottic infantile hemangiomas at a single vascular anomaly center over a 5-year period (2013-2017) during the era of propranolol treatment.

Queried the Vascular Anomaly Database at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for all infantile hemangioma(s) and then identified case of subglottic hemangiomas. Characterized key features of presentation, natural history and management for subglottic hemangiomas. A secondary differentiation focused on differences between subglottic hemangiomas associated with Beard Distribution (BD) vs not (NBD).

Analysis of 761 cases of infantile hemangiomas demonstrated only 13 patients with subglottic hemangiomas (1.7%). Of those 13 patients, only 4 patients (30%) had BD while 2 patients (15%) had other cutaneous hemangiomas and 7 patients (55%) had no cutaneous hemangiomas. Secondarily, a total of 31 case of beard distribution cutaneous hemangiomas with 11 patients having oropharyngeal involvement (35%) but only 4 patients with subglottic hemangiomas (13%). Interestingly, 2 of the 4 BD patients had treatment failure on propranolol and required second line treatment with steroids or surgical excision while only 1 of 9 NBD patients failed propranolol treatment. As well the same 2 BD patients which failed propranolol also had PHACES syndrome.

Subglottic hemangiomas are a rare presentation of infantile hemangiomas but with significant morbidity. While the classic teaching that a segmental beard distribution hemangioma raises concern for a subglottic hemangioma, this cohort indicates subglottic hemangiomas occur in a NBD presentation (1.3%), and demonstrated only an approximate 10% incidence rate with a beard distribution. But more importantly, this study raises the question that beard distribution in setting of PHACES syndrome may herald a more recalcitrant and complicated natural history for a subglottic hemangioma. This is of significant concern as risk for CVA in setting of PHACES is highest with use of steroid treatment. None of our patients had high risk extra or intra cranial vascular arterial anomalies and no CVA were noted.